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Gold Prices Settle Higher on Greek Deal

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Gold prices settled higher in trading today after Greece’s political leaders reached an agreement on austerity measures and reforms, paving the way for additional bailout funds for the debt-laden country. Gold also rose the European Central Bank and the Bank of England decided to continue with a loose monetary policy.

Gold futures for delivery in April on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange settled 0.6% higher at $1,741.20 an ounce. Gold futures traded as high as $1,755.50 an ounce, however, lost momentum in the last hour of trading.


Darin Newsom, a senior analyst at Telvent DTN, said that today’s trading was all about the dollar and the Greek deal is supporting the euro, weakening the greenback. The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the U.S. dollar against a basket of six currencies, slipped to 78.561 today. Newsom said that gold is trading opposite the dollar index again. He added that fundamentals have been tossed out of the window for now with the main driver being the direction of the dollar.

Gold was also lifted by stronger than expected inflation reading in China. Some solid economic data in the U.S. also lifted sentiments.

Ronald Leung, a physical dealer at Lee Cheong Gold Dealers in Hong Kong, told Reuters that Greece seems to be closer to a concrete deal, which weighs on the dollar and helps gold.

Meanwhile, Bayram Dincer, analyst at LGT Capital Management, told Reuters that the euro-dollar is now gaining because of positive news for the euro and gold priced in dollars is piggy-backing on this. Dincer said that this is a first round effect but the higher-order response from a risk perspective is that now, with the containment of an uncontrolled default, we are now on track with Greek debt management and that should not result in a gold price rally.

Mark O’ Byrne, an Executive Director at Goldcore, said that traders also focused on continuing ultraloose monetary policies by the Bank of England and the European Central Bank.

Earlier today, the Bank of England kept its key lending rate unchanged at 0.5%. The central bank also expanded the size of its asset purchase program by 50 billion pounds to 325 billion pounds. The European Central Bank also kept is benchmark interest rates unchanged at 1% and eased collateral rules for credit operations.

Gold ETFs ended the day lower. The SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSE: GLD) ended the day 0.28% lower at $168.02, the Market Vectors ETF Trust (NYSE: GDX) ended the day 0.52% lower at $55.25, and the iShares Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSE: IAU) ended the day 0.30% lower at $16.85.

Silver prices fluctuated between gains and losses in trading today before finishing the day in green. Silver futures for March delivery settled 0.6% higher at $33.92 an ounce.

The iShares Silver Trust (ETF) (NYSE: SLV) ended the day 0.42% lower at $32.90, while the ProShares Ultra Silver (ETF) (NYSE: AGQ) ended the day 0.89% lower at $61.16.

The ProShares UltraShort Silver (ETF) (NYSE: ZSL), which seeks daily investment results that correspond to twice the inverse of the daily performance of silver bullion as measured by the U.S. dollar fixing price for delivery in London, ended the day 0.70% higher at $10.10.

In other precious metals, platinum and palladium settled lower in trading today. Platinum for delivery in April fell $0.50 to settle at $1,667.60 an ounce, while palladium for delivery in March settled $4.60 lower at $711.30 an ounce.

Copper gained in trading today. Copper for March delivery settled $0.07 higher at $3.98 a pound.

 

 

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edliston
Post Written By: Ed Liston

Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.


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Ed Liston

Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing.

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